The Jewish nation’s passage through the split waters of the Yam Suf marked not only the final step of their Exodus from Egypt, but their first step toward becoming G-d’s chosen people. In this manner, they followed in the footsteps of the Patriarchs.

Avraham, according to the Midrash, was on his way to the Akeidah with Yitzchak, when the Satan took the form of a stream and blocked their path. Avraham pressed on and as he waded through, the water reached his neck. But his devotion to fulfill the Divine request to take Isaac to the Akeidah enabled him to safely pass through those threatening waters.

Yitzchak’s similar devotion to Hashem enabled him to remain steadfast in Canaan, even during the famine there, and to re-open Avraham’s wells, which the Philistines had stopped up.

Yaakov, too, was tested at a body of water—the Yabbok River—where he wrestled with the angel of Eisav.

The Israelites, confronted by a turbulent sea, acted with self-sacrifice by jumping into the Yam Suf, an act that propelled them forward with a new resolve, a new dimension of faith.

After crossing through the water, the Israelites express their newfound faith in song—the Shiras Hayam, the Song of the Sea. The Midrash states that at Creation the angels declared, "What is man that we should make mention of him?"

G-d replied, "Come observe the scene of the Song of the Sea."

As soon as they heard the Israelites sing, the angels began to sing as well: "O G-d, how glorious is Your Name in all the earth."

Song, through which celestial beings praise the Almighty in the Heavenly abode, is the language of the soul. Song possesses therapeutic powers for those who are physically and mentally handicapped. Moshe, who suffered from a speech impediment, sang at the sea without obstructions.

The Torah is called a Shirah, a song. The Torah is also allegorically referred to as water for the parched soul. The combination of water and song at the Yam Suf brought the nascent Jewish nation one step closer, physically and spiritually, to their acceptance of the Torah and their embrace of the Divine mandate.

Our mission today remains that of our forebears—to swim in the "Sea of Torah," to drink from its waters, and to sing out gloriously to G-d for His generous, eternal gift to us.

Rabbi Saul Aronov

Rabbi Aronov is rabbi of Beth Israel Synagogue in Halifax, Canada.